Sheetal Deo was shocked when she got a letter from her Queens apartment building’s co-op board calling her Diwali decoration “offensive” and demanding she take it down.
Deo believes she and people of other faiths should not have to sacrifice or apologize for a sacred symbol simply because it is often conflated with its tainted version.FILE – One of about 60 floor tiles emblazoned with swastika-style crosses in the entrance to the Longview Community Church in Longview, Wash., is seen on March 3, 2016. A Longview church established in 1925 bears tiles with symbols that were once seen as a sign of good fortune, but are now more closely associated with terror.
Sheetal Deo and her husband, Sanmeet Deo, hold a Hindu swastika symbol in their home in Syosset, N.Y., on Sunday, Nov. 13, 2022. Hindus, Buddhists and Native Americans are trying to rehabilitate the swastika, a symbol of peace and prosperity, and to restore it to a place of sanctity in their faiths.
The symbol was revived during the 19th century excavations in the ancient city of Troy by German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, who connected it to a shared Aryan culture across Europe and Asia. Historians believe it is this notion that made the symbol appealing to nationalist groups in Germany including the Nazi Party, which adopted it in 1920.
“You cannot call it a symbol of evil or other facts that have existed for hundreds of years, just because of Hitler,” he said. Pushpita Prasad, a spokesperson for the Hindu group, called it a victory, but said the legislation unfortunately labels both Hitler’s symbol and the sacred one as swastikas. In this photo provided by Holocaust researcher Jeff Kelman in November 2022, the swastika is seen on a coupon-type store token made before the Nazi Party adopted the symbol. This is part of Kelman’s collection, which he says shows the “regular and innocuous use of the swastika as a symbol of good fortune in the West, prior to the Nazi use of the similar-looking hakenkreuz.”
“A Eugene resident saw that news report and asked why on earth was this mountain called that in this day and age,” said Tymchuk. He said the mountain got its name in the 1900s from a neighboring ranch whose owner branded his cattle with the swastika.
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